The cable as a design feature – why it’s time to stop hiding it

Pia Seidel

9.6.2026

Translation: machine translated

Pictures: Pia Seidel

Material, shade, base – and then what? The cable comes last, or not at all. Yet it’s sometimes the most interesting element.

Designers who take an aesthetic approach to hardware are rare. So I was all the more delighted to come across several projects at Milan Design Week and the Design Days in Lausanne that don’t hide the cable, but showcase it.

I don’t know if this is a trend. But it’s a sign – and a long overdue one.

The cable as a soft material

Napalosa from Antwerp creates lights in which the cable is part of the design from the very beginning. The lamp I saw at the Deoron exhibition during Milan Design Week has a fluffy, fur-like cord instead of a normal cable. The lamp head sways when you touch it.

The cable becomes a tactile promise: if the lamp is cosy, then the cable should be cosy too.

The cable as a testament to a lost craft

«The Last Bead» is dedicated to Murano beads – a craft that is increasingly being displaced by cheaper imports. Cécile Feilchenfeldt and Adrien Rovero came across the studio of one of the island’s last beadmakers, who possessed an extraordinary collection of rare pieces, some of which can no longer be produced. This led to the creation of light fittings and accessories in which the glass beads form the visible centrepiece. They were on display at Design Days Lausanne.

The cable is part of the design. It is not hidden, but rather forms part of the nautical imagery that runs through the project. LED and USB-C meet a centuries-old craft.

The cable as an extension of architecture

Anna Dawson from New York designed a wall lamp especially for the Villa Pestarini in Milan – a rationalist house by Franco Albini – for the Playinghouse exhibition at the Alcova. The ‘ «’ Calle Pestarini» light fixture references the geometric ornamentation of the staircase and the glass of varying degrees of transparency on the ground floor: amber-coloured and clear glass strips overlap to form an organic plaid pattern.

The cable is white, slightly transparent and made of fabric. Dawson treats it as part of the object, not merely as an appendage, but as a finishing touch.

It’s about time

Three very different projects, three very different answers. What they have in common: the cable is not the problem to be solved. It is part of the object.

Anyone who designs a lamp should also design the cable – or at least choose it carefully. Not because nobody sees it, but because everyone should see it.

Pia Seidel

Senior Editor

Pia.Seidel@digitecgalaxus.ch

Like a cheerleader, I love celebrating good design and bringing you closer to everything furniture- and interior design- related. I regularly curate simple yet sophisticated interior ideas, report on trends and interview creative minds about their work.

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